Not a mod, but figured this would be better than clogging up the culture war thread?
Where to watch
6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern (broadcast from Atlanta), so when this post is about on hour old. Any CNN platform, and no subscription needed. Also available on C-SPAN, PBS, (those three including CNN for sure free), NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox, USA Today, Univision, basically everywhere.
Rules
It will be hosted by CNN, one of only two agreed at this time (the other September 10th). Debate rules mutually agreed include no audience, mic muted outside their turn, no opening statements, no prewritten notes, no props, 2 minute answers and 1 minute rebuttals with 1 minute by discretion, only two commercial breaks (no confirmation on how many/how long), 90 minute duration overall, and Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will be moderators. Coin flip for Biden led him to select the right podium, so Trump chose to give his closing remarks second. In case you were curious about the mics:
"Attached to the cameras in the studio and in the candidate's field of view are the timing lights. When the lights show yellow, there are 15 seconds left in a candidate's answer or response. When the lights flash red, there are 5 seconds left, and when the light displays solid red, time is up. At that point, the candidate's microphone will be turned off, and the other candidate will have their microphone turned on. On each candidates' podium are two green lights. When they're on, they signal to the candidate that his microphone is on, and when the green lights are off, the microphone is off."
Expected Viewership
This very recent poll (3 days ago) suggests that overall 37% of US adults are "extremely" or "very" likely to watch, up to 64% if you include the "somewhat" likely group; 57% overall plan on (extreme/very likely) tuning in to some form of coverage, including clips or analysis after, though the share of independents is lower at 41%. Over 50% of adults from each party feel the debate will be extremely/very important to their own campaigns respectively. So viewership should be fairly high, certainly in the tens of millions.
So: Thoughts? Reactions? Expectations? I'll post my own in the thread below.
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Notes -
HOLY SHIT BIDEN MIST HAVE LOST THE ELECTION RIGHT THERE, Biden lost his train of thought entirely and said "we beat Medicare"... Trump didn't even need to say anything about his mental because that said everything.
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I wonder if Trump would consider scooping the debate by announcing a VP pick in the debate, maybe in his closing arguments. That would be an interesting media strategy to take over headlines, because it would virtually force them to include it in the headline, at the cost of other info. Probably wouldn't happen, but it would be very smart, especially if he had a poor performance.
Quite an unexpected and intense partisan tangle going on in the pre-show panel on CNN itself. I don't know who these people are, are these all partisan commentators? They must be. Definitely blurring the line between reporting and commentary. Such a tough question in journalism right now, and I don't think we're doing well. I heard just a few days ago on an NPR show, 1A, about immigration which made me very upset when the host was talking about how everyone had "collective amnesia" about the Trump years, and basically came out and said he felt that that was a "failure of journalism". What? He clearly feels like journalism needs to tell people how to think, not just some facts, right? Also, the video mix is a horrible stereo experience.
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Personally I think the debate will be very impactful. I'm very excited about the debate format, which to me seems far more useful and professional than some of the popularity contests we've seen in years past. I think the direct voter exposure to the candidates is actually pretty low, consisting mainly of news snippets, TikTok clips, memes, and the like, so the debate should be interesting because it's much more of a "primary source", if you will.
I found this analysis lines up pretty closely with my thinking, from a pollster who does "dial testing" where voters instantly react to things throughout the debate. His claim: it's usually not about the one-liners and what the media hypes. For example, a lot of people didn't notice Bush Sr. check his watch, or care; Trump's first Biden debate performance where he interrupted a lot played very very poorly with women voters; Trump's "because she'd be in jail" against Hillary was actually loved by a lot of viewers. He says a one-liner can actually be very effective, but more for how people feel about it rather than the substance. The media he says often focus on the wrong thing. He also goes on to say that voters probably do want to see some passion from the candidates, even more than self-control, and it would be more effective long-term to do so.
For me, I'm also going to be using this debate to tune my opinion about how "with it" each candidate is, age-wise. It's certainly not a perfect gauge - Trump has been setting expectations for example that Biden will be drugged up, and one debate is not the same as daily tasks critical to the presidency, but it's better IMO than paparazzi-style video clips out of context and partisan surrogate war and hearsay on the air.
I actually have very little idea of how the debate is going to go, which is why I'm so interested in how it turns out. Allegedly Biden has been doing classic debate prep and Trump has been doing single-topic review sessions with different people, including VP candidates. I actually think Trump's approach here might be better.
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